The billionaire of telecoms agreed to sell the 11 % he holds in the regional daily newspaper of the Tapie family, leaving the way to the boss of the CMA-CGM shipowner.
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After a year of fierce struggle, the belligerents decided to sign the armistice. CMA-CGM, the group of Rodolphe Saadé, announced Tuesday August 30 to have reached an agreement with NJJJ, the personal holding company of Xavier Niel (shareholder on a personal basis of the world) on Provence. The latter ultimately agrees to sell the 11 % he holds in the regional daily, leaving the owner alone in the running to win the 89 % of the capital in the hands of the group in liquidation of Bernard Tapie, died in October 2021. This agreement put an end to all current legal proceedings. The Bobigny court must decide on the final transfer of the title on September 30.
“I am delighted with this agreement. It will allow us to work with all the employees of Provence and Corsica morning to the implementation of our development and recovery project,” said Rodolphe Saadé in A message transmitted to the world. This surprise epilogue took short the newspaper employees who expected to see the conflict to get bogged down for months. “We are between the relief of finally having perspectives and amazement. We are almost surprised that it ends like that,” reacts Eric Breton, secretary of the Social and Economic Committee (CSE).
We could make a link between this press release and the trip of Emmanuel Macron to Algeria in which Xavier Niel and Rodolphe Saadé participated. In reality, it was the liquidator, Marc Sénéchal, who took the initiative at the beginning of the summer to put around the table the two billionaires, by passing them the following message: without prejudging his outcome, the ongoing legal battle could last ten years. Meanwhile, the newspaper may have put the key under the door. For his part, the liquidator was ready to fight before the courts to cancel the right of approval that Xavier Niel had in Provence and which allowed him to block the operation. It thus allowed Rodolphe Saadé to take the battle insofar as the latter had made an offer of 80 million euros, well above the valuations of the experts who went, of good source, from 25 to 45 million euros.
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The founder of Free, who faced the opposition of part of the editorial staff and that of the current CEO, Jean-Christophe Serfati, support of Rodolphe Saadé, resolved to give way. Not without pocket a small bonus. While he had ceased to say in private that a deficit newspaper was worth nothing, he obtained for his 11 % a price higher than the 9 million valued by the 80 million proposed by Rodolphe Saadé for 89 % of the capital. A sum which seems derisory for the shipowner, whose group should garner a profit of 15 billion euros in the first half of 2022.
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